Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 12/29/2008

12/29/1992:
In a quantum leap forward for its football program, Fresno State beats the big kids on their block, the USC Trojans, 24-7, in the Freedom Bowl at Anaheim. Coached by Jim Sweeney and looking to upgrade their gridiron cachet against a Pac-10 power, the Bulldogs (9-4), the nation's highest-scoring team at 40.7 ppg, present a staunch defense by allowing fewer than 200 yards total offense to their nationally renowned West Coast rivals. Leading 10-7 late in the game, FSU scores twice on runs by Anthony Daigle and Ron Rivers to clinch the biggest win in school history.

Birthdays:
Ray Nitschke b. 1936
Mike Lucci b. 1939
Laffit Pincay Jr. b. 1946
Richie Sexson b. 1974
Laveranues Coles b. 1977

1990:
The Soviet chess master Anatoly karpov forced the reigning champion Gary Kasparov to withdraw from their World Chess Championship match after just 29 moves.

"Karpov's tenacity has thrown Kasparov into fits of frustration, consternation and puzzlement. The champ wanted to blow Karpov off the board, but whenever Kasparov looked to shoot out ahead, Karpov tightened his defenses." -Franz Lida, December 24, 1990

Packers Fact:
Pro Football Hall of Fame halfback Tony Canadeo served the Packers' organization longer than anyone else in history (59 years). That includes his playing career (1941-44, 1946-1952) and stints on the franchise's executive committee and board of directors.


PRIZE WINNER
At the center of this sweeping 80-year saga of an immigrant Greek-American family is Cal Stephanides, called Callie during his/her first 14 years, a hermaphrodite grandchild of an incestuous brother and sister. But it isn’t the weirdness factor that impresses. It’s the author’s exceptional command of language and narrative that makes the reader want the book never to end. In 2003, Eugenides won the Pulitzer Prize for Middlesex.

MIDDLESEX, by Jeffrey Eugenides (Picador USA, 2003)